50O 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[December i, 1882. 



sides tbeir obvious usefulness in checking wash, weeds 

 must imiJrove the mechauical coudition of the soil by 

 decaying in it as they are forked in from time to time, 

 and, in order that they should act bentficially, it is ab- 

 solutely necessary that this should be done occasionally. 

 That they keep the soil moist and shaded is, I think, 

 proved by the following, which is the first result I have 

 to chronicle from an experiment .ilready eoninienced on 

 this estate and carefully watched, of whose jir'^gress 

 I will send you occasional notes. The late spell of 

 dry weather which killed a lot of young cocoa plants, 

 though shaded, and caused the cofifee to droop in a field 

 which was kept cle^in and where the soil is deep, had 

 no injurious effect upon similar cocoa (but not shaded 

 artificially) and coffee growing through a carpet of 

 weeds in an extremely rocky (limestone) field.— Yours 

 truly, G. B. 



The Five-beaked Coffee Berries, sent to us by 

 Mr. J. L. Dewar, were submitted lo Mr. A. Dixon of the 

 Royal College, who reports :—" They are perfectly 

 normal as far as the natural build of the flower is 

 concerned. E tch alternating whorl in the flower consists 

 of the same number of parts, thus : calyx teeth 5 ; 

 corolla lobes 5; stamens 5; heaus 5; we cannot 

 give diagram). From some di.sturbing cause of nature .sup 

 pression of 3 ovules is the rule* (.ilthough 4 are often sup- 

 pressed as in peaberry coffee. ) We have instances of the 

 same in the coconut. Occasionally, we find one strictly 

 normal, but the rule is suppression of 2 ovules. lu 

 the English oak one ovule usually destroys the other five 

 and the 3 septa." 



FoRE.STEy.— Major Van Somci-en's report on Forest, 

 Admiuistration in the Pubjab gives an interesting ac- 

 count of the experiments made by the department 

 during the year. The Carob trees at Change Manga 

 flowered for the first time last Decmber, and are 

 reported to be looking healthy ; as also do the Carobs 

 at Lahore, where there are 500 young plants in pots, 

 and 80 planted out. Twenty-two kinds of Eucalyptus 

 were sown in the autumn of 1881, and, by the fol- 

 lowing spring, 4,000 snedliugs were in the beds. At 

 Sabatbu, Eucalypti have been a failure. From Clianga 

 Manga it is reported that Eucalypius Rostratn thrives 

 better than any other species, and is less liked by 

 white ants. Thirty new Spanish chesnuts were planted 

 out at Kilba on the Sutlej, Some of the older trees 

 fruited, but the burrs were empty. The eeed tried 

 at Chumba all failed from being tno old and rotten. 

 Cork oaks and French olives are both doing well in 

 Kulu ; and something that is called Catalpa Bignonioicles 

 flourishes both in Changa Manga and Kulu. In 

 Kulu, also, the Tasmanian blue gum (C'M/;n'«s«« il/ac- 

 rocarpa) is thriving. 



The Indian Silk Trade is likely to have a pro- 

 sperous seiison, states the Lahore paper. The weatber 

 has been singularly favourable, and cocoons are re- 

 ported to be more than usually. The silk cultivators 

 in India, have to contend against peculiar difficulties. 

 Labourers are ignorant and careless. The gomatihta, 

 in nine cases out of ten, oppresses the spinners and 

 robs his employer. The silk-worm is of inferior 

 quality, and the improvement of the cocoons is in- 

 terfered with by the general rack-renting of mulberry 

 lands. To add to these troubles, M. I'asteur has at 

 last discovered the cause of the disease which has 

 aiilioted the silk-worm in Europe for tlie last twenty 

 years ; and at the same time it seems that the in- 

 creased ravages of pkyilomra in France and Italy is 

 likely to divert much capital from the wine to the 

 silk industry. Still, the ludiau grovper need not 

 despair as long as he has his six harvests of cocoons 

 in the year, to the single European harvest. 



Pla.nting in the Wynaad. — October 18th. We are 

 very thoroughly enjoying ourselves. Every living 

 thing, except the weeds, is revelling in the mere fact 

 of being alive, for our almost forgotten friend, the 

 tun, is graciously pleased to shine on us once again. 

 Crop is bound to be a tedious business this y .ar ; 

 more than half the berries are only p irtially formed, 

 and fears are felt that much will prove light — mere 

 floaters in fact — when pulping commences. I have 

 never seen the trees themselves looking more luxuri- 

 antly healthy. Little or no signs of leaf-disease, that is 

 a joy, in anticipation, sure to come to us with the 

 weather. Cinchona is splendid. The growth during 

 the past year has been extraordinary, in spite of the 

 damage done during the heavy bursts of the N. W. 

 Monsoon. Coffee is to be regarded as a mere "pot 

 boiler" apparently, whilst, following modestly in the 

 wake of the great King Ledger, we hear of pepper, 

 rubber, ipecacuanaha and tobacco ; all of which, it is 

 believed, would llourish satisfactorily in our climate. 

 Tea, we know, h.ns been successfully tested in this 

 respect; and the demands for the comparatively small 

 quantity already produced in Wynaad should be suffi- 

 cient encouragement to induce others to attempt its 

 cultivation thoroughly. Anything that will thrive on 

 plenty of wet weather ought to do in Wynaad ; products 

 with a rooted objection to 300 or 400 inches of rain in 

 the year are better elsewhere. — M. Mail. 



Lime. — Referring to our remarks in a recent issue, on 

 the presence of lime in the irrigation canal water of 

 Dehra Doon, and on the unsuitability of lime as an 

 ingredient in the soil for tea cultivation, we have 

 come across the prospectus of a tertain patent man- 

 ure-maker, who takes care to point out that the ar- 

 ticle he manufactures, h,as no lime whatever in its 

 composition. No doubt experts in this speeiality are 

 thoroughly up in their subject, and have found that a 

 manure containing lime, such as might be suitable for 

 coffee oultiv.ation is deleterious for tea. The follow- 

 ing analyses of soil from Assam, the home par ex- 

 cellence, of the tea plant, were made by Dr. Voelcker, 

 well known for his labours in connection with agri- 

 cultural chemistry : — 



99-43 99-43 



On the other hand an eminent firm of coSee-manure 

 manufacturers, advertize their speciality asoontaining: — 



Phosphate of lime 22-93 



Sulphate of lime 22.15 



Total ... 45 -08 per cent. 

 It will thus be seen that the utmost care should 

 be exercised in selecting manure for tea purposes, 

 and tliat it will not do to use any sort of manure 

 or fertilizer, on the plea that good manure cannot 

 fail to strengthen the plant. — Imlif/o Planlerf' Gai:ette. 

 [If lime is so objectionable in manures for tea, there 

 will be great difficulty in dealing with tea and coffee 

 planted together. But we suspect that a moderate 

 quantity of lime is needed by tea as by most other 

 plants.— Ed.] 



